Wild at Blackhawks preview

WILD (17-15-3) at BLACKHAWKS (13-20-6)
8:30 p.m. ET; ESPN+, NBCSCH, FS-N, NHL.TV

Minnesota, 3-8-1 in its past 12 games, has scored three goals in its past four games and has allowed two goals or fewer in five of its past six.
Chicago, 3-1-0 in its past four games after going 1-9-1 in its previous 11, has allowed two goals or fewer in three of its past four games.

Players to watch

Wild goalie Devan Dubnyk (2-3-1) has a 1.82 goals-against average and .927 save percentage in his past six starts.
Blackhawks forward Patrick Kane has seven points (two goals, five assists) in a five-game point streak and 14 points (four goals, 10 assists) in his past 11 games.

They said it

"We've just missed a lot of good opportunities. It's snowballed to where it's become pretty glaring. Unfortunately, it's happened, you know, for three, four, five games in a row. But I think we're pretty comfortable if we can keep doing a lot of the same things and continue to get those chances that you'd be optimistic that they'll go in." -- Wild forward Zach Parise
"It was a nice few days off. Obviously, the schedule's been pretty hectic this year. Played I think the most games in the League. It was nice to have the schedule where you're playing home on the 23rd, home on the 27th and three days off here in Chicago. Nice to get away a little bit, get refreshed, get ready for the back half of the year." -- Blackhawks forward Patrick Kane on Christmas break

Wild projected lineup

Jason Zucker -- Eric Staal -- Mikael Granlund
Zach Parise -- Charlie Coyle -- Luke Kunin
Jordan Greenway -- Mikko Koivu -- Nino Niederreiter
Marcus Foligno -- Eric Fehr -- JT Brown
Ryan Suter -- Jared Spurgeon
Jonas Brodin -- Greg Pateryn
Nick Seeler -- Nate Prosser
Devan Dubnyk
Alex Stalock
Scratched: Matt Hendricks
Injured: Matt Dumba (upper-body)

Blackhawks projected lineup

Brandon Saad -- Jonathan Toews -- Dominik Kahun
Artem Anisimov -- Dylan Strome -- Patrick Kane
Alex DeBrincat -- David Kampf -- Brendan Perlini
Dylan Sikura -- Jacob Nilsson -- John Hayden
Duncan Keith -- Erik Gustafsson
Gustav Forsling -- Brent Seabrook
Carl Dahlstrom -- Connor Murphy
Collin Delia
Cam Ward
Scratched: Brandon Manning, Andreas Martinsen, Chris Kunitz
Injured: Corey Crawford (concussion), Brandon Davidson (right leg), Marcus Kruger (concussion)

Status report

Dumba had surgery to repair a ruptured right pectoralis muscle and is expected to miss a minimum of three months. … Davidson and Kruger skated with the Blackhawks.

Stat pack

Dubnyk needs one shutout for 30 in the NHL. … Parise has zero points in his past four games after having six points (two goals, four assists) in a 3-game point streak. … Toews needs two assists for 400 in NHL. … DeBrincat has five points (three goals, two assists) in a three-game goal and point streak.